Q: Why are gasoline prices so much higher in this area compared to the rest of the state? Who controls the distribution in the Bay Area? There are approximately 19 stations here that offer gasoline for sale. Who owns, controls and supplies these stations? Can representatives of these companies explain how you can buy gasoline 20 cents a gallon cheaper in Florence, Eugene, Roseburg, Medford, etc.?

A: It’s anybody’s guess. The complaint is not new. It’s something residents in the Bay Area have complained about for years, especially when, in 2004, prices started to rise significantly and hovered around $2.25 a gallon for regular gas. It was often a quarter or more a gallon higher in the North Bend-Coos Bay area than in surrounding communities and cities.

The Oregon Department of Justice at that time set up a hotline for people to call with reports of what they felt were unusually high prices. Attorneys began an investigation.

It took two years. The report was a mere 13 pages long and said little, even though attorneys said they interviewed local and regional wholesalers and retailers. Local fuel companies Dedicated Fuels, Goddard Energy and others were mum.

The report credited the price hikes to crude oil prices, seasonal demands, restricted refinery and pipeline capacity, foreign political instability and profits and costs embedded in the refining, distribution and retail sale of fuel.

It also said that coastal prices may be affected by a lack of a readily available supply, additional transportation costs and fluctuating demand in the summertime — a fact that Scott Bassett, president of Bassett-Hyland Energy company said could have been a factor then.

“On the basis of this investigation, insufficient evidence exists to conclude that high prices consumers experience on the Southern Oregon Coast during the period examined resulted from illegal anticompetitive behavior,” the attorney general’s report said.